Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America in 2015.

Labor Day Omnium Day 2 – Civic Center Criterium

Summary
This was a new course using some of the same roads that were part of the circuit race last year. The course was fast with plenty of opportunities for attack. I thought I was racing well, but ended up missing a split with 18 riders up the road. In the last few laps, 3 riders escaped from the field in pursuit. I ended up 2nd in the field sprint for 23rd in the race. One good thing to take away from the race was that I was happy about the field sprint – hopefully next time it will be for something in the top 20. Here is my lap data:

I decided to head out 3 hours before the start of the race to ride some of the roads between Clemson and Anderson that I used to train on. I ended up on part of what we called the “sprint loop” because there were so many sprint signs on it (stop ahead, county line, city limits, etc…). I snapped a few pics along the way, and it was one of the best “warm-up” rides of the year, a stroll down memory lane. I went on a couple new roads as well, and there was some sort of hunting going on in the fields on either side of Fants Grove Rd – it was kinda disconcerting to be riding through all the shotgun blasts.

Complete ride stats, part 1

Complete ride stats, part 2

The awkward spot in the Denver Loop where you have to ride on US76

Roads from the Denver Loop

Fants Grove!

The four-way intersection … I would always approach this intersection from the right.

This weekend is named after the small town of La France outside of Anderson … Tour de La France!

Chad Andrews calling the last few laps of the Cat 3 race

Tour de La France

The backside of the Michellin plant that you can see the entrance to off of US 76

Looking backwards from a four-way intersection on the sprint loop. I had never approached this intersection from the road I took today – but I can recognize the back of the sprint signs (stop ahead) just down the road in this picture

Another sprint sign on the sprint loop

Crossing the creek on Fants Grove Rd – the vegetation here has grown quite a bit in the last 15 years.

Approaching the hunters on Fants Grove

The sprint sign at the end of Fants Grove

View looking towards the mountains near the tri-county spot

The Pickens County sprint sign

View looking towards the mountains

A blue heron flew away from the pine tree and swooped in front of me. I already had the phone out to take a picture so I got a picture of him flying in front of me. I never knew that these birds like to roost in pine trees!

This is where I proposed to Kristine 11 years ago. My number this weekend is 11. Awesome.

Looking south from where I proposed to Kristine – you can see a guy standing on a stand up surfboard – never saw that while I was a student at Clemson, but the crew team would row through here.

2 thoughts on “Labor Day Omnium Day 2 – Civic Center Criterium”

It’s interesting to look at the lap data from riders in the break versus not in the break. The split was caused by good team tactics being played on a decently slow lap to create that split which seemed to never fully get away very far even though the field wasn’t chasing hard. By the time I saw them blocking and slowing the pace, it was too late as they did it on that slow chicane where it was harder to pass. I didn’t see which team slowed up to create the split. Was it 786, TT1, or a combo?

I think it was a combination of teams since all the teams were represented in the split. At that point everybody was looking to Frank and Bobby to bridge. Given just a few more laps in the race it would have all come back together.